


Rise of The Machine

by M_E_Lover



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Original Character Death(s), Sad Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-24
Updated: 2017-04-26
Packaged: 2018-10-23 16:47:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10723305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/M_E_Lover/pseuds/M_E_Lover
Summary: Harold and the team have decided to come clean about The Machine and Samaritan and plan to show the world the error of their rival AI's ways as Harold sets out to destroy it.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> There will not be a happy ending to this story. It was inspired by one of my favorite films, so if you see some similarity to it with something you may have already seen, that's why.  
> Brownie points if you can guess the Oscar winning movie!

Harold had gotten himself, briefcase in hand, and the renowned and respected reporter inside the Samaritan Server room with only seconds to spare. 

He shoved David Pryce in before immediately setting the electronic locks. The large group of armed enemy agents were at the door as soon as it had engaged. It wouldn’t keep them out forever but with any luck, he would be able to accomplish his objective.

The room was industrial and vast and filled with control consoles and monitors with machines stationed throughout the room. 

Above them, on a second tiered level overlooking the room, clear panes of thick, bulletproof glass spanned the entire length of the narrow floor. An observation deck with which to monitor the staff at all times.

John Reese and Sameen Shaw stood helplessly bound and surrounded by a dozen armed men with John Greer in close proximity. Greer’s intent was to make them watch the downfall of their leader and his precious Machine once and for all.

“Mister Pryce,” Harold began in earnest, gasping to get his breath back from the mad dash to their destination. “You have to know the truth. You have to expose what the government and ultimately the entity known as Samaritan has been doing and what they plan for the future of humanity.” 

Harold was finding it difficult to breathe, he had taken a bullet to his abdomen and suspected it may have perforated one of his lungs. 

He had to get the vital information out first and foremost, there was no time to have his concentration pulled from him by the sharp pain in his side and back.

“I received the information Mister Finch, there’s no need for what you’re doing,” Pryce said anxiously. “These people will be held accountable for what they’ve done.”

Harold shook his head in distress. “No, you don’t understand, there will be no one to stop them, I have to destroy Samaritan now.” Harold held his hand to his side and moved to lay the briefcase on top of one of the servers and opened it. 

“You need to broadcast this right now Mister Pryce, I have secured a feed that will give you access to the outside, they won’t be able to interfere before I’ve finished my work. The public must see what’s being done.” Harold was distressed and unhinged as he powered up The Machine that had encompassed the case.

“Aright Mister Finch,” Pryce tried to placate the agitated man. “I will introduce you and you will give a brief description of what you’re trying to accomplish.” He looked at Harold sympathetically as he watched him frantically typing. Harold was distraught and sweat beaded and streamed down the sides of his face. 

Harold remotely connected the equipment in the briefcase to the server that it lay on.

John Greer tapped into his operatives at the door of the room that Harold and Pryce were in, “How long Mister Lambert!? He’s about to go live!” Greer demanded. John and Shaw pulled at their restraints uselessly as they watched and listened in horror to Harold pleading with the reporter. 

The blood seeped through Finch’s layers and they saw and heard him weakening by the second. They could only make sounds of anger and dismay in their throats, their mouths had been taped shut.

“Five minutes Mister Greer, my men are using a blowtorch to gain entry.” Lambert watched impatiently at the hurried efforts of their goal.

“We may not have five minutes! Hurry it up Mister Lambert or we shall all suffer for it.” Greer spat at his second in command.

David Pryce pulled out his cell phone and opened the live feed app and pointed it toward himself, all it would take is the touch of a finger to begin. “Alright Mister Finch, please try and compose yourself, we don’t want people to think you’re deranged,” Pryce suggested. 

“Ready?” He asked as Harold continued to type feverishly and then paused and took a breath. Now all it would take for Harold to launch the virus would be his voice commanded password.

He turned and nodded at Pryce still unable to calm his breathing. David took Harold’s pocket square from his jacket and wiped the sweat from his face. Harold smiled slightly at the attempt of help he was offered.

“In three…two…one,” He motioned to Harold that he was now broadcasting live, the camera now pointing at them both. “This is David Pryce, I’m here with Harold Finch, a man who says he has concrete evidence of an organization in possession of a vast surveillance system that has taken control of our government.”

Harold began to tremble as he stood, the pain and blood loss clearly taking its toll on him now.

“Mister Finch, please tell us what you know.” Pryce looked at him, concerned that he may pass out at any moment.

Harold took a breath and began to unburden himself as quickly as he could.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harold's Last Stand

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes I've done it again! I don't know why I torture and kill my sweetheart like I do! I may need counseling...

“My name is Harold Finch… I created a program, a machine just after 9/11 to help the government sift through potential future terrorist attacks…” Harold felt faint and close to falling over, he grabbed the edge of a server to stay on his feet.

David swung a chair around for Harold to sit. The camera angles tipped and tilted the room as Pryce went through the motions of getting Harold situated in the chair. 

The feeds to the outside were dizzying as John, Shaw, Greer and his men watched as it was broadcast on a flat screen television in the corner of the room, being relayed from David’s phone.

“Mister Lambert!” Greer exclaimed.

“Another thirty seconds sir,” he replied excitedly.

John and Sameen were thrashing and fighting as best as they could but they both knew it was already too late for their leader, all they could do was watch and wait as Finch attempted to explain the unexplainable before he either bled to death or was killed by Greer’s men.

“Just deploy the damn thing, Finch!” John was screaming in his head. 

The virus needed Harold’s voice if not a typed password and Harold wasn’t thinking properly. If he didn’t make it, this entire mission would be for nothing and the world would lose one of its greatest intellects and the gentlest, most altruistic man on the planet.

“My Machine was never meant to do harm… I programmed it with a moral compass… but another machine… Samaritan… came into existence that was not made to feel the same way about humanity.” Harold was losing his strength and was beginning to slur his words and panted weakly for breath.

David tried to help him get his point across, “Sir, what do you mean when you say "feel about humanity?" these are machines we’re talking about,” the reporter stated.

Harold smiled ruefully as his head began to sag. “That’s what I thought... at first too,” he replied strenuously as his wounded body weakened.

Then Harold used what strength he had left to get to his feet and stood unsteadily to approach the computer.

The door swung open violently and four men including Lambert rushed in and scattered a flurry of bullets into Harold’s back as he staggered and reached out toward the machine, the impact from the rounds expelling all of the air from his lungs. 

He grabbed onto the server, his hands leaving bloody prints down the sides of the machine as his bullet riddled body slid to the floor.

“Stop!!!” Pryce yelled as he witnessed the carnage with absolute dread. It was too late, the damage had been done.

John and Sameen were disconsolate and enraged at the sight, they both threw themselves against the glass, trying for just a moment to get closer to their friend, and John wept at the horrific spectacle in front of them.

Harold lay sprawled on his back staring at the ceiling, writhing in pain and desperately trying to breathe. Thick viscous blood ran from his mouth, his eyelids blinked rapidly opening and closing in confusion and shock as he choked and gasped frantically for air. He peered around the room myopically, David Pryce knelt down beside him.

Blood coated the entire front of Harold’s three piece suit from the powerful high caliber rounds that entered through his back, leaving exit wounds through his chest and torso. Grisly blood spatter peppered his face and hands.

The reporter was close to tears as Harold struggled to speak. He leaned over the mortally wounded man and put his ear in close for a moment. When he raised himself upright again Harold’s lifeless eyes stared back.

Lambert looked up at his boss and John Greer smiled triumphantly back at him while John and Shaw disappeared from view.

“Now Mister Reese, Miss Shaw. I’m sure you’re both going to think me insane but I’m going to let you go.” Greer grinned wickedly. He motioned for their mouths to be freed.

John couldn’t talk just yet but Shaw had no issue. “Yes you are insane, why would you let us live knowing that it is now our sole mission in life to kill you?” She sneered, choking back her rage.

Greer chuckled maliciously. “My dear Sameen, I have Samaritan to guard my life now and as soon as we destroy Mister Finch’s machine, it will give me great pleasure to see your efforts flounder and ultimately fail.”

John laughed mirthlessly as he watched David Pryce stand at Finch’s briefcase while Lambert and his men unceremoniously hauled Harold’s body from the room.

“And what’s so funny Mister Reese?” Greer sneered.

“See for yourself,” John nodded toward the server room as David Pryce began to enter the password to deploy Harold’s virus.

The lights flickered in the room and then John Greer knew.

“You’ve already lost you son of a bitch! Harold’s machine will rise and destroy Samaritan once and for all!”

Greer couldn’t believe his eyes, “But he didn’t say the password!” He lamented, “How…?” 

“It seems Mister Pryce believed everything Harold had told him… including the password.” John and Sameen both stood and watched Greer’s expression morph into disbelief and in-action as they walked out of the room. 

They would allow The Machine to enact her own retribution for her father’s death and leave their hands clean, just as Harold would have wanted for them.

“Sir? Shouldn't we stop them!?” His men asked anxiously.

Greer stood and gaped as he watched David Pryce desolately follow the slick trail of Harold’s blood out of the room, not bothering to look up into the eyes of the murderer he would very soon have put away. 

“Sir!?” His men urged. 

Greer shook his head and stared in shock into the server room and never said another word. 

#

Epilogue

Four days and thirteen hours later the last remnants of Samaritan were obliterated from every system in existence. Harold Finch’s Machine mourned the passing of its creator and father and John Greer was checked into a mental institution. The man had lost all capacity to communicate with any other human being.

John and Sameen went on to work the numbers in honor of the man that had changed both of their lives for the better. The numbers slowed down but The Machine knew that her wards needed to be active for their own sanity.

Jeremy Lambert dropped off the face of the earth it seemed, though John Reese and Sameen Shaw knew better. They saw an obscure obituary in a newspaper and knew that The Machine had decided on its own to take care of that particular problem herself. After all, it was Lambert that pulled the trigger that ended her father’s life…it was the least she could do.

The End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyone have a guess to what movie this story was inspired by?


End file.
